


The First Token

by Capella



Category: Myst Series
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-19
Updated: 2011-04-19
Packaged: 2017-10-18 09:40:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/187531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Capella/pseuds/Capella
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alternate Universe: Before D'ni fell, Aitrus, Anna, and Veovis were in a relationship. Now D'ni has fallen, and Anna and Veovis must raise their son Gehn in the Cleft. But Gehn has not yet adapted to the situation, and his parents fear that he will never accept them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The First Token

Veovis stood at the bottom of the steps and watched his son play in the green at the edge of the pool of water. He thought he could see Aitrus’ likeness in the way the child's eyes would narrow as they stared at something that kept his attention, the way he turned his head when his mother called his name, the set of his jaw in profile. Gehn was only eight, but Veovis and Aitrus had been in school together at that age. He fancied that he could see traces of the boy he’d known echoed in the face of the boy in front of him.

The young boy slipped on a slick rock and fell against the stone side with a cry, interrupting his ruminations. Immediately Veovis was in motion, crossing the few steps to reach his son, arms outstretched to comfort. Gehn turned away, picking himself up and crossing his arms. "I don't need your help,” he said in a sullen tone.

"Gehn!" Anna scolded from the ledge of the kitchen room above, where she had been preparing their dinner. "That's not how you speak to your father."

"He's not my father!" shouted the young boy defiantly. Before Anna or Veovis could speak, he ran for the ladder leading up to the desert sands above.

"Gehn!" Anna called again, taking a step forward. "Come back here now." But the boy was already up the ladder and over the lip.

Veovis sighed and climbed the one to the kitchen. Once there, he rested a hand on Anna's shoulder. "He'll come back before dark, Ah-na. He always does."

She looked up at him, her uncovered eyes glistening with moisture he pretended his goggles kept him from seeing. "I'm sure he didn't mean it quite like that-" she started.

He wouldn't let her lie, not even to spare his feelings. "He's still young, the loss still raw. He blames us, and uses the loss to justify idealizing Aitrus. It will ease as he ages," he reassured her, though privately he was unsure.

"I hope you're right."

“I could help you finish the meal,” he offered.

Anna looked for a moment as if she would say no, but then summoned up a smile. "If you don't mind chopping vegetables…"

\- - -

Veovis and Anna had sat on the sand watching the sun set and the stars appear, but still their son had not come back. He had set out to the caldera, hoping that Gehn had been kicking rocks there as he knew his son loved to do, but had returned to Anna empty-handed. Though he wanted to search farther, his rational side knew that Gehn could have gone in any direction and that he had only guesswork to go on if he set out. Instead they spread a blanket out next to the ladder into the Cleft and lay side by side, watching the stars in silence.

Veovis grieved at the thought that the years where Gehn had been equally at ease with his mother and both his fathers were left behind as permanently as the ruins of D'ni. Once Gehn had sat at his knee in the great hall of K’veer and asked him for stories of D’ni history, and Veovis had gladly told his son all the ones he knew. Since they’d moved into the Cleft, he hadn’t been asked to tell a single one. It seemed that Gehn was predisposed to holding grudges for a long period of time. In that he is my heir, the former lord of D'ni thought.

That thought caused his mind to drift in another direction. They had no real way of knowing who was the father, not that it had particularly mattered to any of them. Not until after the Fall and Aitrus' death, when Veovis realized that he wanted Gehn's father to have been Aitrus. The idea that something of his friend and first love had survived had become more important to him than he ever could have imagined. He had never discussed it with Anna, but he wondered if she felt the same way, if she too hoped that their son was a last living representation of Aitrus' existence in this world. He would never ask her, but those were the thoughts that came on the long cold nights like this, when there were only two heartbeats nestled together in the dark, not the three there should have been.

The susurration of clothing brushing along the sand reached them. Veovis reacted first, gently disentangling himself from the sleeping Anna and sitting up. Beside him, she stirred. "Gehn?" he called softly, pressing her hand in his as he waited for an answer.

The boy shuffled up to them. "You stayed up all this time?"

Veovis couldn't tell if the tone was simply surprised, or if there was an undercurrent of pleasure in it. "Of course we did," he answered. "We wanted to make sure you came home safe."

"We worried about you," Anna added.

Gehn looked at them for a long moment without a word, then stepped forward. Veovis wrapped his arms around the boy and his wife and pulled them close. Gehn held stiff for a moment, then relaxed into the embrace with a soft sigh. "I'm tired."

"We'll tuck you in," Anna reassured.

Gehn was safely fussed over and placed in bed. Anna left for their bedchamber, but Veovis stayed a moment at his son's bedside, looking again for a resemblance to Aitrus, not himself. As he finally turned to leave, he heard a soft noise behind him. He paused and waited.

In a small voice, Gehn spoke. "I'm sorry I bothered you."

Veovis couldn't help but step back to the bedside and touch the boy's face. "Parents worry. It means we love you."

"I'll try not to do it again, Father."

“Goodnight, Gehn,” Veovis said.

Gehn made no reply, instead rolling over to face the wall. After a moment, Veovis returned to his own room, slightly disquieted by the lack of acknowledgement, but knowing that there had been a first step towards reconciliation. Anna rolled over to face him as he sat on the bed, and with her usual perceptiveness caught the look on her face. "Is Gehn alright?"

"He called me father," he answered.

Anna understood the significance of the event. Gehn hadn't directly referred to either of them by parental titles since the Fall. "He must be healing."

"I hope so," Veovis answered, a feeling of peace settling through him for the first time in months. D'ni was gone, and so was Aitrus, but for the first time, he thought that what he had now- the Cleft, Anna, and Gehn- would be enough.


End file.
